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I don't usually watch David Letterman unless I fall asleep during the 11 o'clock news and wake up during his introductory monologue. I don't usually pay a lot of attention to Sarah Palin either. Alaska and the 2012 presidential race are a long way off, and I'm not one of her big fans.

But I did find it fascinating to watch Letterman diddling around in embarrassment before he brought himself to apologize for suggesting -- in a lame and distasteful joke -- that Palin's teen-aged daughter had been "knocked up" by New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez during the Palins' visit to Yankee Stadium.

For the next couple of days, Letterman fell to recycling innocuous jokes about the conversion of Broadway into a pedestrian mall and wondering why the governor of Alaska should be so upset. After all, it was just a joke and he wasn't seriously suggesting that it actually happened. And he hadn't realized that the daughter who went to the baseball game was 14-year-old Willow, not 18-year-old Bristol, the unwed mother.

The moment the snickering comment dropped from Letterman's lips, I expected the governor of Alaska to respond like a she-bear defending her cubs. Or like Harry Truman defending daughter Margaret's singing. As one who occasionally strays into gray areas in search of humor, I understood immediately that Letterman was not in a gray area. The late-night TV host had definitely crossed into the black zone.

But regardless of your political views, when an entertainment figure commanding a huge national audience turns his snide wisecracks on your teen-age daughter, you can be forgiven for reacting the way you'd react if a bull moose were coming toward you, head lowered, at full charge.

Neither Bristol Palin nor her sister Willow deserves to be held up to national ridicule. Sure they're daughters of a former vice presidential candidate. Sure, their mother has been a prominent advocate of sexual abstinence for unmarried teens -- an area in which our views happen to coincide. And sure, Bristol spent the presidential campaign visibly pregnant with a child conceived out of wedlock. But she's one of millions who have made that mistake.

If it were Palin herself who was playing around, she would be a fair target (and let me hasten to add that I am in no way suggesting that the governor is anything other than a loyal, faithful wife to Todd Palin). People who offer themselves for political office invite close scrutiny of their personal lives. When Bill Clinton dallied with Monica, Jennifer, Paula et al, he became fair game for the pundits, and I was among those who held his conduct up to ridicule.

I've seen some criticism of Governor Palin for reacting so angrily to the Letterman gaffe. Maybe it was not a wise move politically; she has been accused of rising too readily to the bait on matters respecting her own conduct. But the provocation was severe.

Harry Truman waxed vindictive with far less provocation after Washington Post music critic Paul Hume damned with faint praise the singing of the president's daughter, Margaret.

Hume wrote:

"Miss Truman is a unique American phenomenon with a pleasant voice of little size and fair quality. . . . [she] cannot sing very well, . . . has not improved in the years we have heard her, . . . [and] still cannot sing with anything approaching professional finish."

I suspect that the majority of those who heard Margaret sing agreed with Hume; her singing career never really took off, and she is better remembered as an author and as the wife of a journalist (a noble calling, indeed).

But after that tepid review, the president promptly fired off a letter to Hume, calling him "an eight-ulcer man on four-ulcer pay" and adding, "Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens, you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below."

The difference between Margaret Truman and the Palin daughters was that Miss Truman was in her 20s, was trying to launch a professional singing career, actually performed on the night Hume said she performed, and was in no way being accused of moral transgressions. The worst thing Hume wrote about her was that she couldn't sing, and that was fair comment.

But you have to admire Daddy's vituperative artistry.

Perhaps Sarah Palin should have asked for a spot on Fox News to render a Truman-like response to Letterman's lewd attempt at humor. Or perhaps she should have responded with a lady-like note, forwarding copies to all the major media:

"Dear Mr. Letterman: I will be happy to appear on your show as soon as your material achieves a level of decency and humor that makes it worthwhile for me and other Americans with mature minds to stay up past 11:30 p.m."

Readers may write Gene Owens at 1004 Cobbs Glen Drive, Anderson, S.C. 29621. Or send e-mail to him at Swampscum2@aol.com.